the evolutionary development or history of taxonomic groups of organisms

Taxonomy

classification of organisms

Taxon

a particular class e.g., class, genus, species

Phylogenetic tree

an evolutionary “tree” showing
relations among taxa

Extant

currently existing species

Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection (1859)

- Individuals within a species differ in their morphology, physiology and
behavior (variation).
- Some of this variation is heritable; on average offspring tend to
resemble their parents more than other individuals in the population.
- Organisms have a huge capacity of increase in numbers; they produce
far more offspring than give rise to breeding individuals. There is competition between individuals for scarce resources such as food,water, mates etc.
- As a result of this competition, some variants will leave more offspring
than others. These will inherit the characteristics of their parents and so
evolutionary change will take place via “natural selection.”
- As a consequence of natural selection organisms will come to be adapted to their environment. Individuals that are better able to find
food, water, mates, avoid predators and so on will have greater representation in future generations.

Alternatives to Darwinian evolution

Scientific creationism; intelligent design ... an early idea

Parson naturalists

-religious people who spent years documenting theology, botany, etc...
-John Ray and William Paley

Paley’s argument

-the watchmaker
-Living organisms, Paley argued, are even more complicated than watches, "in a
degree which exceeds all computation." How else to account for the often
amazing adaptations of animals and plants? Only an intelligent Designer could
have created them, just as only an intelligent watchmaker can make a watch

(who later invented the intelligence test):
The Psychic Life of Micro-Organisms (1889)

Francis Darwin

Charles Darwin’s son Francis Darwin, an eminent
botanist, gave a presidential address on “consciousness in
plants” to the British Botanical Association …

J. Loeb

“tropisms” – all behavior
explained by physiochemical reactions to
stimuli

Lloyd Morgan

“Morgan’s Canon”

“Reductionistic approaches”

gain support and have a big influence on the development of the field of Comparative
Psychology.

Alfred Binet

(who later invented the intelligence test):
The Psychic Life of Micro-Organisms (1889)

Francis Darwin

Charles Darwin’s son Francis Darwin, an eminent
botanist, gave a presidential address on “consciousness in
plants” to the British Botanical Association …

J. Loeb

“tropisms” – all behavior
explained by physiochemical reactions to
stimuli

Lloyd Morgan

“Morgan’s Canon”
• In Animal Intelligence (1882), Romanes described the
behavior of a scorpion under extreme stress stinging itself to
death, and implied this was analogous to human suicide.
• Morgan wrote a response in the journal Nature arguing, on
the basis of his experiments, that this behavior was a simple
reflex …. not suicide!
• (What would constitute evidence for suicide in an arachnid?)

“Reductionistic approaches”

gain support and have a big influence on the development of the field of Comparative
Psychology.

Alfred Binet

(who later invented the intelligence test):
The Psychic Life of Micro-Organisms (1889)

Francis Darwin

Charles Darwin’s son Francis Darwin, an eminent
botanist, gave a presidential address on “consciousness in
plants” to the British Botanical Association …

J. Loeb

“tropisms” – all behavior
explained by physiochemical reactions to
stimuli

Lloyd Morgan

“Morgan’s Canon”
• In Animal Intelligence (1882), Romanes described the
behavior of a scorpion under extreme stress stinging itself to death, and implied this was analogous to human suicide.
• Morgan wrote a response in the journal Nature arguing, on
the basis of his experiments, that this behavior was a simple reflex …. not suicide!
• (What would constitute evidence for suicide in an arachnid?)
•Habit and Instinct (1896)
Morgan’s canon: “… in no case may we interpret an action as the outcome of the exercise of a higher mental faculty, if it can be interpreted as the outcome of one which stands lower in the psychological scale.”
•Animal Behaviour (1900)
The “rider”: “To this it may be added – lest the
range of the principle be misunderstood – that the canon
by no means excludes the interpretation of a particular
act as the outcome of the higher mental processes if we
already have independent evidence of their occurrence in the agent.”

“Reductionistic approaches”

gain support and have a big influence on the development of the field of Comparative
Psychology.

Comparative Psychology :1900 to early 1960’s

• More careful studies could be done in lab where variables
can be controlled and experiments conducted with rigor.
• Learning easily studied in the lab: learning apparatus.
• A major focus was the construction of behavioral
phylogenies, especially learning.

Ways of employing evolutionary theory in the study of behavior

1. Historical (phylogenetic) approach. Attempts the
reconstruction of behavioral phylogenies. Oldest and
least powerful use of evolution to study behavior.
Problems: behavior does not fossilize (usually); extant species used to represent ancestral types; uses representative species; separates a trait from others that, together, are the result of evolution to particular habitats; issue of convergent evolution

Convergent evolution

organisms that aren't closely related evolve similar traits as they adapt to similar environments.

Errors of Comparative Psychology

1. It is possible to create a simple linear scale of
animal species from unintelligent to intelligent.
2. “Representative” (and convenient) animals can be
arranged along the scale.
3. Learning was the key to understanding animal
behavior.
4. General laws of behavior can be found to explain
the behavior of all species.
5. Genetics was irrelevant to psychology
6. The laboratory was the best place to study animal behavior.

-Involves reconstructing the evolutionary history of the
behavior. Attempts to find behavioral “homologies.”
-oldest

Early Ethologists

-von Uexkull - concept of the umwelt (surroundings) - systems and responses are very different in different animals
-Lorenz
-Tinbergen
-von Frisch - bees and color (can't see red, but can see ultraviolet) and dance of bees

Early Ethology

-early goal of ethology was to demonstrate that behavior, like anatomical and physiological traits, had evolved - they stressed the adaptive nature of behavior - emphasis on inherited behavioral response: "instinct"

Why so much attention to inherited behavior?

-evolutionary interpretation of behavior
-species studied

Ethograms

-detailed behavioral profiles catalogs - library of behavior of species interested in

-peck red spot
-explore color importance
-red=food
-does position matter? - if in different spot, less effective pecking - concluded that releasers and the IRM were more complicated... inherited images of correct configuration? - have idea of what should look like when born?

J. Hailman (1967)

-"Ontology of an instinct"
-configuration was NOT important: the dot was equally effective no matter where it was on the model IF it was presented at the same rate of movement
-visual system sees red dot and rate appears
-feature detectors - fine tuning of nervous system enable detection of stimuli

"ontogeny of an instinct"

-pecking improves with time
-improvement may be due to either maturation of the nervous system or experience (practice)

Ethologists concept of instinct

-FAP (unit of inherited behavior)
-generally requires releaser (signal stimuli)
-occurence of FAP leads to a refractory period
-thresholds for the response patterns are mostly species specific
-learning is not necessary of the occurence of FAP
-FAPs are primarily involved w/ behavior patterns that have adaptive functions

seeks to evaluate a behavior by how it contributes to the fitness of animals performing it. The rationale is that behaviors that have been selected for must be advantageous - what is the nature of that advantage - gulls removal of eggshells - problem of speculation about adaptive significance why flamingos pink? - because of crustaceans they eat

Importance of testing evaluative hypothesis

-test competing hypothesis - removal of eggshells - reduces predation

imprinting

-form of early learning in which the young animal forms an association or attachment with another animal/object
-early conclusions of Lorenz

precocial

ahead of its time (mobile soon after birth)

Altricial

immobile for considerable period of time

critical period

time in which experience must occur

exposure to stimuli before hatching influences imprinting

-hatching synchrony influenced as well
-auditory systems work in egg before hatching - hear calls of each other and mother - important in synchrony of hatching - if deny auditory contact - hatching not sync - doesn't matter where calls come from - mother or each other

-zebra finch raised by Bengalese finch - will court bengalese finch - will eventually mate with species
-duck species where only the females incubate eggs - females show innate preference - males prefer mates of their foster mother species - mate with own species

Variation in sexual imprinting

-dimorphic species have differenct resemblance to females
-monomorphic species look alike
-males of dimorphic species rely on imprinting to identify sexual partners

modifications of early views

-sexual imprinting and maternal imprinting don't occur at same time in all species
-sensitive period not as restricted as originally thought
-imprinting is reversible within the sensitive period especially if initial object is not a conspecific - if does not see member of own species at first, then introduced - goes to species (vice versa)

Neuroethology

-since mid-1960s much research, inspired by the early ethologists, has focused attention on how the nervous system influences animal behavior
-IRM innate releasing mechanism- black box approach
-feature detectors in the nervous system
-biological bases of the regulation of behavior - specialization of the nervous system - hormones

donald griffin

-coined term echolocation

lateral lemniscus

-neurons that block transmission of auditory messages to higher regions of the brain during vocalization - blocking loud sounds

inferior colliculus

-has "echo-detector" cells that are sensitive to the second of two separate sound stimuli

tracking neurons

-in both areas these neurons remain active as long as the interval between the orientation cry and the echo continues to decrease=getting closer

roeder

-auditory systems of moth - receptors A1 and A2
-spirals to ground and hopefully lands in a good hiding place
-A2 causes muscles to stop beating wings to make it fly uncontrolled and plummets - wings cover ears when down
-bats make terminal buzz when they are closer to moth - at start of buzz A1 and A2 firing, but at end A2 does not fire as much, A1 still fires